


Every Angel Needs Their Wings

by GalekhXigisi



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 21:47:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18455252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalekhXigisi/pseuds/GalekhXigisi
Summary: Klaus learns to deal with Ben being a ghost and the Hargreeves learn to live life like no one's watching anymore.





	Every Angel Needs Their Wings

Klaus glares at the ghost standing in front of him. The ghost’s wings curl together, wrapping around them as they look around. Dark brown feathers seem to fill the room. The wings aren’t the largest, no, but they could certainly support a body or two with their size. Klaus doesn’t pause his glare as he lights his blunt, inhaling it without hesitation. He holds the joint between his lips as he moves to flop on the bed, glaring at the ghost. “Hey, fucker, my brother just died, leave me the fuck alone.” He throws the lighter, watching it faze through them. Klaus has two more in his coat pocket anyway. 

 

The figure’s wings unfurl, displaying the soft face belonging to the ghost. Soft features, all a soft reminder of what was going on. Blood was splattered other their face, making their features less accented than typical.  _ He _ was decorated in a black leather jacket and hoodie, paired with black pants to hold onto the aesthetic. Dark eyes stared at Klaus, bloodied hands pressed to the ghost’s midsection. Slowly, his eyes turned from Klaus to his hands. He stares at those for a second. 

 

Klaus stares, too. His eyes are wide, mouth opened somewhat, agasp to the ghost in front of him.  _ “Ben,” _ he asks in a near silent whimper. That seems to piss him off more than it does help him. He has a few snappy comments to throw about being able to summon him but not Five. However, he pauses. They stay stuck in his throat. “No,” Klaus whimpers, “no, no, no,  _ no!” _ He moves back, watching Ben stay focused on him, clearly searching for answers instead of a fight. He looks confused and like he’s about to cry, but Klaus looks like he’s going to have a mental breakdown.  _ Maybe he is, _ Ben’s mind mutters before Klaus starts talking again. “Go away! Leave me alone!” He darts out of the room. 

 

Ben seems to be drawn to Klaus as if he were a host of some kind. He follows without thinking about it. His mind pries that perhaps he wasn’t actually supposed to follow, though he couldn’t find himself being unable to resist. His core burns as he attempts to make a difference between himself and Klaus. It feels like he’s being jerked towards his brother, the grip of the feeling relentless and mean. It felt as if  _ The Horror _ were ripping him apart once again. He finds Klaus a few stories down, in the bottom of the house in a section Ben had never once seen before. He sinks into the floor, feeling the layout all run through his body. His siblings are in their rooms, most of them asleep. Diego is crying, sobs near silent but still there. They had all learned to cry quietly or not cry at all. 

 

Ben is pulled further down, slinking slowly into the room he finds Klaus in. The door is shut and he’s cowering in the corner, hyperventilating as he whimpers softly. It’s either a panic attack or genuine sobbing, though Ben isn’t sure as he materializes beside Klaus. The other isn’t looking at him. In fact, he’s ignoring him the best he can in favor of forcing himself to breathe and counting. That was something Ben had taught him not long before, well,  _ today. _ He sits a few feet away, not even attempting to touch Klaus. He just sits and lets the other breath. 

 

Ben’s eyes scan around the room. It’s dark, dim lights on the roof making the room look as if it were tinted a gentle blue. It’s a sickly blue, though, one that reminds him of when he had first discovered his powers. Instead of  _ The Horror _ being the deep blue they had grown into, they were white, the softest touches of blue lighting up the suckers. The coloring resembled drawn snow more than anything else. Soundproof padding covers the cell. Ben can’t help but let his brows furrow at that. Whoever had been locked in here first would never have been able to scream for help. He wonders if Klaus had ever been locked up in the cell. It would explain how he knew about it. Then, though, he considers Allison. Soundproof walls meant Allison couldn’t Rumor her way into being let out. If the door shut and locked, that meant lights out for whoever was inside. 

 

It feels like an eternity until Klaus calms down, though it’s only an hour or two in all reality. Klaus sniffles and wipes his face, moving to look up at Ben finally. His voice is rough as he painfully addresses the other. “If you’re going to haunt me, at least get rid of the bloody clothes. It ain’t cute.” He glares at his brother, eyes half-lidded and puffy from sobbing. It doesn’t help that they’re pretty damn bloodshot, too. He looks as if he were having a hangover from after a night of doing multiple lines of cocaine. It doesn’t help that he’s more so glaring at the other than anything. 

 

Ben raises a brow, hand coming up to wipe his face. However, he only succeeds in smudging it. As he finds, the blood did not dry within that amount of time. Klaus cringes as he watches from his spot. “Alright, but how?” His brows furrow as he brings the hood up to wipe it off better. It smudges it but does manage to erase some of the damage he had caused to his own features. Klaus does look as if he’s thankful for that, which is somewhat rewarding. 

 

“I don’t know. Ghosts are usually all cleaned up after the first few times I see them.” Klaus gives an uncoordinated shrug as he thinks over what he just said. “I don’t really know what ghosts do in their spare time, either. Usually, if they’re really pissed off when they died or they still are after they come back, it takes weeks for them to look any bit cleaned up. But just because I’m, like, maybe the only person that can give an accurate description of ghosts and actually say if they really are there or not doesn’t mean I actually know much about them.” 

 

“You’re taking this a lot easier now,” Ben comments softly. It’s clear he says it more out of concern than anything, though. His throat tightens in that way it only did when he was worried for his siblings, voice higher pitched and head turned to the side the tiniest bit. His words are sort of like hums instead of speaks, voice trailing off the tiniest bit. It’s open for his brother to continue but also easy to be shut down if the other didn’t want to say anything about the topic. 

 

Thankfully, Klaus seems to want to talk about it. That’s rare. No matter how close they were in life, they never really went past being chaotic dumbasses in their free time. “I can’t summon Five, but I can summon you, which means I can at least do  _ something _ right, you know?” He shrugs passively. “What’s up with the wings, by the way?” 

 

Ben shrugs this time. “I’m not actually sure. It doesn’t feel like when I call Them up, but it does feel like they’re actually attached to me and that they’re part of my body. I have a lot more control over them, too, so it’s better.” He had full control over  _ The Horror, _ yes, but it didn’t make anything any easier than it had the first time. There was some mental strain on it and it usually left him much weaker than he thought. That had caused his demise this time, too. 

 

“Cool,” Klaus mumbles softly. “So, you’re sort of like my guardian angel or some shit now?”    
  


Ben shrugs in return. “Honestly, I’m not really sure. It feels like I’m kind of tethered to you right now. It honestly kind of hurts when I try to move away. I’m not really sure what it means, but it feels super weird.” he cringes at his own description. His hands move to the hole in his middle, blood soaking it as well as his throat. He was thankful that the extra layer of clothing seemed to cover it up just fine. Blood did cover it, though, leaving him with damn, sticky hands. 

 

“So you’re supposed to haunt me or whatever, too?” Klaus groans. “I have enough ghosts, can’t you just, I don’t know,  _ go away _ like all the other ones do when I’m high?” 

 

Ben raises a brow. “So that’s why you’re always high?” He moves his focus back to his brother, who seems to be holding onto whatever mental stability he had left. “Why didn’t you ever tell any of us? What’s being high have to do with this?” 

 

“That’s a lot of topic jumping, little bro.” 

 

“I’m not younger than you. You’re technically younger than all of us. And that’s even including Vanya.” 

 

Klaus glares. “You’ve been dead for a while now, I think we’ve closed that gap by now.” 

 

“You were born literally two minutes before the second, dude. You’re the youngest. It’s going to take more than a few hours. Besides, by technicality, I’m still a lot older than you are.” 

 

Klaus dismisses Ben with a wave of his hand. “Anyways,” he stresses, “after I broke my arm the first time when I was seven-” 

 

“Didn’t you say you broke it because you could float? That’s, like, the dumbest reason you’ve ever broken a bone.” 

 

Klaus glares. “Shut it, Ben. If you want answers from me, then at least make an attempt to listen to them.” Ben imitates running a zipper across his mouth and closing it. “Good. Now, after Mom, Dad, and Pogo drugged me up, the ghosts went away. So did the terrible smells. I could eat and I didn’t want to puke everywhere. I could breathe, too. And the ghosts weren’t screaming for the first time since I could remember! Do you know  _ amazing _ it was to not feel like absolute  _ shit _ constantly?” 

 

Ben frowns. “I… Don’t feel like shit constantly? I mean, I don’t really physically feel much now, but… you know.” 

 

Klaus snickers mockingly. “Yeah, yeah, stop flexing on me.”

 

“What the fuck does that even mean?” 

 

“I don’t really know. One of these ghosts keeps saying it, so I’m taking it up a lot, okay? There is a point here, dude. Drugs block the ghosts and I really don’t like seeing them. They’re always gross and  _ screaming. _ If the drugs and alcohol and all that stuff put them on the metaphorical block, then I am completely ready to ruin my body in order to not see them anymore.” 

 

Ben nods as passively as he can, though it’s muted by the emotions that roll over him. He remembers breakfast the morning that Five disappeared. Klaus had been rolling a joint right beside him, not caring if anyone actually saw. He somehow had gone mostly undetected by everyone aside from Ben, who had let it slide. Klaus had only been rolling joints and consuming the occasional edible at that time. He had smoked that just after breakfast, asking Ben if he had wanted a hit. Ben took a drag and ended up coughing so much that he almost vomited. Then, their father had called for Klaus. Ben got to watch Klaus stiffen up and put the joint out on his hand, shoving it into his pocket. The room stunk of weed, yes, but Hargreeves didn’t seem to care as he pushed Klaus away in order to train. 

 

“So you just deal with ghosts day in and day out?” 

 

“Well, none of you exactly seemed that keen on helping me much, Ben.” 

 

Ben’s lips draw into a thin line. He’s more than just a little hesitant to ask the next question. “Why didn’t you tell us?” 

 

“Remember the first time I told you guys that everything smelled disgusting when we were kids and you all said I was just being dramatic? Alisse, our nanny, she even slapped me and told me to eat or she’d get Dad.” Ben winces in sympathy as Klaus imitates a harsh slap to the cheek, just barely avoiding missing his hand by half a centimeter. “Or when I told you guys about my powers for the first time and Diego cried because I told him I already heard dead people laughing.” Ben snorts at that. “Or when you all screamed at me to contact Five and you guys just screamed and  _ screamed _ at me? I was sober and I was doing my best. You guys don’t even understand how many times I had already tried to call him down or whatever. He was a stubborn prick and I  _ still _ haven’t gotten in contact with that bastard.” 

 

Ben’s lips purse and he sighs. There was a look of guilt to that memory. Or, well,  _ memories, _ as they had fussed at him for far more than just one day. They had fussed and fussed for weeks before giving up. Klaus made sure to put distance between himself and his siblings after that, even Ben. They shouldn’t have.

 

Klaus softly sighs, running a hand through his hair. “If you’re gonna stick around or whatever, I guess I’ll make a place in my room for you. I don’t think you can sleep since, well, the other ghosts don’t sleep, so.” He shrugs passively, standing up and moving without hesitation. He doesn’t care if Ben follows after him or not.  _ [He does.] _ He just wants to clear out the evidence of him being high and drunk. Somehow, he still manages to stay coordinated as he moves through the panic room. 

 

“Klaus…” 

 

“Yeah?” Klaus doesn’t stop, no matter how small and soft his brother’s voice was. It made Klaus flinch, reminded him of Ben’s death. It still sat raw and gross in his chest. 

 

Ben follows, the wings supporting him passively. “Have you ever been locked up in there?...” 

 

The younger pauses. He stops completely, body jarred. Eventually, he mutters a quiet, “Yeah. Allison and Vanya’ve both been locked up, too.” He continues on, not giving any context. Ben doesn’t ask for any, either. 

 

-

 

Klaus stands at the podium in front of his siblings, smirking. “We gathered here today because  _ someone,” _ he glares at Ben, who was leaning against his own coffin, “couldn’t stay alive.” Ben rolls his eyes. “Personally, I don’t miss him much.” 

 

Everyone glares at him, especially considering Klaus was the closest one to Ben. In fact, Diego looks like he’s about to shank the other, a knife slipping out of his pocket. 

 

“I honestly wish the little bastard would leave me alone.” He passes a smile to Ben. 

 

“Oh, fuck off,” the older replies. 

 

“He’s got wings now, too, so that’s pretty cool. He’s a bit pissed about dying. We talked about it last night. I cried, threw up a little, got a hangover, a few ghosts screamed at me, and so on.” The glares were getting harsher by the second. “None of you believe me or really seem to consider if I’m telling the truth or not, so I’m just gonna sit down now.” 

 

Allison grunts softly as Klaus quickly sits beside her. The spot for Five and Ben are both filled by the ghost, who props his legs up on the seat. “You can’t even be sober for your own brother’s funeral,” she asks in a seething whisper. It comes out like venom from a snake, poisoning Klaus whether she intended to or not. 

 

“Are you going to rumor me into being sober, dear sister? It wouldn’t be the first time, now  _ would it?” _

 

Ben raises a brow at the way Klaus spits it back. His teeth are gritted and he seems to be just as angry as she was. However, Allison seems to blanch and turn away. The youngest passes a look towards the ghost that tells him  _ I’ll explain later. _ Ben just nods softly, watching as Vanya moves up next to speak. She won’t say much and she’ll be as passive as she can, they all know, but it’s still appreciated that she’s even saying anything to begin with. 

 

After the burial, Ben gets that promised explanation. Klaus sits across from him on the roof, just barely staying up there. He passively takes a drag of his joint. He would’ve offered some to Ben if he had the chance, but the other was no longer physically there. He existed on a plain of existence that only ghosts knew. And, well,  _ Klaus. _

 

“She rumored me once,” he supplies, taking a deep drag. “Well, involving my powers, it was only once. It was just us and Mom home. You, Dad, Pogo, and everyone else were out on that week-long mission in Tokyo. Allison had broken her ankle, remember?”

 

Ben nods. That mission had been confusing as all Hell, but at least Ben knew multiple languages. He had gotten by just fine with the help of Vanya, who translated what he couldn’t for him. 

 

“We were nine and I was just starting to get on something stronger than what I had been taking. Allison got tired of it pretty damn quick, especially after i started singing and dancing with Mom in the kitchen. She was in the living room, but we-  _ I _ was being pretty loud.” He takes another drag and holds it for a moment or two before huffing it out. “When I sat with her to watch TV and kept asking her what it actually meant and if Julie would realize who actually loved her or not, she had rumored me.” 

 

“What’d she say?” 

 

“I heard a rumor that you were always sober or something like that.” Klaus shrugs, sighing softly. “I don’t remember now.” He brings his knee up, chin settling on it passively. “As soon as I was sober, I… I broke down. It took a couple of minutes, but I broke  _ down. _ There were so many ghosts and they were all  _ screaming _ and I just… I couldn’t handle it, I guess. Being sober meant that I wasn’t numb to everything and that every  _ single _ thing that had ever happened to me was suddenly  _ there _ and all slapping me in the face with guilt. I know my moral compass is a roulette wheel, but I have some standards.“ 

 

The way Klaus pauses makes Ben stiffen some. He presses on, “What happened next?” 

 

Klaus sighs once again. “She rumored me back into not being sober after I started screaming. I don’t remember much or what was even going on, but she said I was hysterical and I was paranoid for the rest of the week. I passed out from exhaustion at least two times, or so she said. I don’t know. When I woke up, Mom had me strapped down to a table and Allison was crying and saying that she was sorry.” 

 

“Oh…” 

 

“Yeah. It was rather unproductive.” 

 

They sit there in silence, letting the day wash over them. It’s a lot. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please join my Discord server!  
> https://discord.gg/eGkwayy
> 
>  


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